Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-10-10
UNOCCUPIED FIELDS.
DR.. TALNAGES SERMON DELIVERED IN TIL 4
TABERNACLE YESTERDAY
Lesl Should Build Upon Another Mans FOunda'
tion-Ths Great Work Of the Churches of
BOmbarting The Snners-held Of
the Christian Church.
Special TsleQrum 10 The Register.

Special TtleQrum to the Register.
BROOKLYN, October 9. The audiences at
the Brooklyn Tabernacle this autumn are
larger than at any time during the history
of this church, aud greater numbers go
away not able to get in. Led by cornet
and organ, the congregation sang with
great power the hymn:
The morning light is breaking,
/ Tie darkness disappears,
The sons Of men are waking
| To peuitential tears.
The Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage DID,
read and explained passages OF Scripture
concerning the dawn of universal right
eousness. The subject of his sermon was
''Unoccupied Fields" and the text from
Romans, chap. xv, V. 20: LEST should l
build upon another mans foundation. !"
Dr. Talmage said;
Stirring reports come from all parts of
of America showing what great work the
churches of God are doing, and i cOngrat-
ulate them and their pastors. Misappre-
tensions have been going the rounds, say
ing the outside benevOences of this par
tiCular church ale neglected, when the fact
is that large sumsOf money are being raised
in various ways by this church for all
styles OF good objects, not always through
the boards OF our own denomination. This
church was built by all denominations of
Christians and by many sections of this
land and other lands, and that obligation
has led ns to raise money for many objects
not connected with our denomination, and
this accounts for the fact that we have not
regularly contributed to all the boards COM
lnended But l rejoice in that you have
done as church
MAGNIFICENT WORK,
and am grateful that we have received
during the year by the confession of faith
in Christ seven hundred and twenty i've
souls, which fact | mention not i'll boast
inc but i'll defense of this church, showing
it has been neither idle nor inefficient.
The most of our accessiOnS have been
from the outside world, 80 that, taking the
idea OF my text, We have not been build
ing on other peoples foundations.
Iu laying ont the plan of his missionary
tour Paul sought out towns and cities
which had not set been preached to. He
goes to Corinth, city mentioned for
splendor and vice. and Jerusalem where
the priesthood and the Sanhedrim were
ready TO leap with both feet upon the
Christian religion. lie feels he has es-
pecial work to do, and he means to
do it. What was the result? The grandest
life of usefulness that man ever lived.
We modern Christian workers are not apt
TO initiate Paul. We build on other peO-
ple's foundation. II we erect 4 church we
prefer to have 1t filled with families all of
whom have been piOus. Do we gather a
Sabbath School class, we want good h0ys
and girls, hair COmbed, faces washed, man
ners attractive. So 4 church i'll this day is
apt to he built out Of other churches.
Some ministers spend all their time in
fishing in other peoples ponds, and they
throw the line into that church pond and
Jerk ont a Methodist, and throw the line
into another church pond and bring out II
Presbyterian, or there is Il religious row IN
some neighbOring church, and whole
school of fish swim of from that pond, and
we take them all in with one swoOp OF the
net. What is gained? Absolutely moth
ing lOI tut Bchcidl cause VI NhtS'' II ID
, only
As AN ARMY,
when regiment is transferred from one
division to another, from the Tennessee to
the Potomac.
What strengthens the army is new re-
cruits. What | have always desired Is
that while we are courteous to those
coming from other ilncks, we build our
church not out of other churches, but out
of the world; lest we build on another
mans foundation. The fact is, this is a
big world. When, in our schoolboy days,
We learned the diameter and circumference
of the planet. we did not learn half. 1t
is the latitude and longitude one diane
ter and circumference of want and woe
and sin, that no figures can calculate.
e This one spiritual continent of wretched'
ness reaches across all zones, and if / were
called to give lts geographical boundary,
would say il is bounded on the north
and south and east and west by the great
heart of Gods sympathy and love.
Oh, it is u great world. Since six
O'Clock this morning sixty thousand eight
hundred persons have been born, and all
these multiplied populations are to be
reached Of the Gospel. In England, or In
our Eastern American cities, We are being
much crowded, and an acre of ground is oI
much value, but out West five hundred
acres is small farm, and twenty thousand
acres is no unusual possession. There is &
vast field here and every where unOccupled
plenty of room more, not building on an
other mans foundations.
We need a. churches to stop bombardinl
the old ironclad sinners that have beeI
. proof against thirty years of Christian as
sault. Alas for that church which lacks
! the spirit of evangelism, spending on on,
| chandelier enough to light five hundred
: souls 10 glory, and in one carved pillaI
: enough to have made thousand men ''pil
lars in the house of our God forever" anC
7 doing less good than many a log cabiI
meeting house with tallow candles stuCl
in wooden sockets. and minister who ha
never seen college or known the difference
Q between
GREEK AND CHOCTAw.
We need as churches to get into sympathy
e with the great outside world, and let then
# know that none are 80 broken-hearted o.
: hardly bestead that they will no
Y be welcomed. ''Norh says some
t fastidiOus Christian, 81 don't lik'
! to he crowded in church. Dom
e put any one in my pew" My brother
f what will you do in heaven? When s
n great multitude that no man can number
: assemblies they will put fifty in your pew
!. What are the select few to-day assembled
4 in the Christian churches compared will
a the mightier millions outside Of them
8 eight hundred thousand in Brooklyn
e but less than one hundred
n thousand in the churches? Many of tn
e churches are like hospital that shoulC
, advertise that its patients must have moth
ing worse than toothache or "run-rounds,
but no broken heads, no crushed ankles
no fractured thighs. Give us for treatmen
e moderate sinners, velvet coated sinner
" and s;pnsrS u1th q ul0SS on II il n